Remote sensing parameterization of regional land surface heat fluxes over arid area in northwestern China

Distributions of regional land surface variables, vegetation variables and land surface heat fluxes over the AECMP’95 area were analyzed using a new parameterized method of combining satellite remote sensing with field observations. The results show that reasonable regional distribution of surface reflectance, surface temperature, modified soil adjusted vegetation index, vegetation coverage, net radiation, soil heat flux and sensible heat flux over heterogeneous arid area in northwestern China can be obtained by using this method. This technique is still in the development stage, the derived latent heat flux shows a bit higher trend than the observed values over the whole study area. The recommendations of improving the scheme are also presented.